Berrys’ Broking Exchange now offers bidding

2nd November, 2012 by Andy Young

The online fine wine trading platform now offers a bidding function, which allows buyers to make an offer on the wines collectors have listed for sale.

The Berrys’ Broking Exchange, operated by Berry Bros. & Rudd (BBR) enables people to buy and sell fine wine online. The company says that the introduction of the bidding system means that, “those who want to buy wines listed for sale by collectors on the site can, for the first time, make an offer lower than the price set by a seller”.

The seller is still able to reject prices offered on their listings, but BBR hopes that the new system will help create a more accurate marketplace, “where the value of wine is influenced by both parties”. The company also claims that the bidding system is bringing it one step closer to offering an online auction capability.

Max Lalondrelle, fine wine purchasing director at BBR, said: “Berrys’ Broking Exchange has seen remarkable growth – with customers selling over £22 million in fine wines during the two years since it launched. However, we wanted to continue to develop the platform and move closer towards creating a marketplace for our customers.

“Developing bidding is the first step in that process and means that sales can now be negotiated between buyer and seller, rather than being driven solely by the prices that sellers set for their wines. Once we have successfully introduced this new functionality to the service, we will continue to work with users and may take the next step to create a full auction service if there is a demand to do so.”

BBR have also said it is working on improving its mobile offering, with the introduction of a live listings app.

Lalondrelle added: “Mobile is the next step for BBX because it will enable sellers to track the wine sales they’ve listed live on BBX at any time. It will also mean they can manage their collections and keep track of their sales history. Sellers have asked to be able to see their live listings on BBX within the app so they can manage listings on the move.”